February 25, 2025

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Read: Colossians 3:18-4:6

Devote yourselves to prayer; stay alert in it with thanksgiving. Colossians 4:2 (CSB)

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What is the most tired you’ve ever felt? We’ve done a few through-the-night road trips to Florida. By 4:30 am my brain is usually pretty foggy. When I trade off with Tara, I’ll fall dead asleep for the next two or three hours and very little will rouse me. But that exhaustion is nothing compared to how I felt in the weeks after Seth was born. 

Ten days after we welcomed our second son, Tara developed complications and spent a total of seven weeks in hospital in two stints. I would come home from the hospital and do the feedings with Sethie all night. I remember falling asleep one night, fully clothed and on top of the blankets; I was so worn out from both the physical and emotional exhaustion. 

Don’t worry though, I’ve well made up for it by sleeping through my share of crying kids since. That’s weird, isn’t it? How is it that we can be exhausted but wake up with the cry of a baby when we are the one who needs to, but sleep through when we are off the clock? 

I remember hearing about my neighbour who fell asleep cultivating and woke up cultivating for the neighbours. Good thing tractors move slowly – that isn’t the case for long-distance truckers who fall asleep at the wheel.  

Fatigue is a vigilance killer.

How do you stay alert when fatigue sets in? Some people drink caffeine, some people talk on the phone, and others smoke. When I drive through the night, I listen to stand-up comedy. Humour keeps me awake (and sometimes the others if I laugh out loud.) Another great strategy for keeping alert is fear. 

You can be having a sleepy afternoon and if you smell smoke in the house you’ll be up in a breath. Take a walk at dusk, and one moment you’ll be savouring the cool, quiet evening—only to find yourself diving into the bushes when a car backfires.

Growing up there I don’t know if there was anything in the bush behind our farm that could kill you, but if I was in there at night and smelled skunk I would freeze probing the darkness with telepathy! But that’s Manitoba. Rustling leaves without the smell were usually ok in Glenlea, but rustling leaves on the Serengeti – well that’s another thing altogether. 

It’s no wonder then that the Church has used fear throughout its history to keep Christians alert. A sleepy Christian is basically a pagan. Our job as Christians is to be vigilant at all times; after all Matthew, Mark, and Luke all say that God will return when we least expect Him. Matthew and Luke have Him coming like a thief while Luke at least has Him as a master returning from a journey. 

And lest we lose the fear of the Lord’s return, Peter exhorts us to stay alert for the DEVIL is prowling around like a roaring lion. 

Don’t get me wrong! I agree! Christians need to stay alert spiritually both because God might want their attention and because the devil is a devious force in the world who will use your fatigue against you. I just don’t think the point of the warnings was to use fear as the means of staying alert.

One of the best verses in Colossians is 4:2 – we are to stay alert through thanksgiving.

Now there’s an underutilized means of remaining alert. 

Honestly, when I was a kid I was terrified that God would come back when I wasn’t ready. No one ever told me that having a grateful heart was the key to keeping awake! Worried that the devils’ gonna get you? Thankfulness is the answer. 

Thankfulness is caffeine for a fear-weary soul and it changes everything. 

I am tired of being made to fear. Fear God (even though His love casts it out). Fear the devil (even though greater is he who lives in us…). I am intrigued by what gratitude can do to make us alert instead. 

What if we kept our hearts awake with gratitude? What if we repelled the evil with gratitude? What if fear had nothing to do with it at all and thankfulness was the real code? 

We should give it a try.